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shellingout

Listed below are comments made by shellingout between Monday, 6th April 2009 and Monday, 20th April 2009.

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Back to work 2:56pm on 20 Apr 2009 I really, truly, hope that this episode will seal Labour's fate.

The budget is just a side order at the moment.
Back to work 10:00am on 20 Apr 2009 I thought you'd come back from holiday feeling refreshed. No change, though, is there!
Improving Brown's domestic political prospects? 5:23pm on 08 Apr 2009 This is appalling. Why doesn't Boris do something? He says he's a man of the people - let him justify his words with some action!
Improving Brown's domestic political prospects? 4:51pm on 08 Apr 2009 #167 Fubar

OK - point taken.
Improving Brown's domestic political prospects? 4:20pm on 08 Apr 2009 Is it now police policy to attack people first and ask questions afterwards?

If so, we aren't just heading for a police state, we're already in one.
Improving Brown's domestic political prospects? 5:21pm on 07 Apr 2009 Susan and others

I realise that discipline has to start from the top, but children are not being disciplined in the home, which is where I believe it should start - before they even get to school. Parents these days seem to think schoolteachers should be solely responsible for their child's education and wellbeing, and expect them to do the job they, as parents, should have been doing years beforehand.

Schoolteachers have no powers of discipline any more, and the children are far more aware of their legal rights than ever we were at that age. We would not dare to even answer a teacher back. We had far too much respect for them.

These children learn this from their parents, and peers. Parents do not seem to worry about whether their child is mixing with the wrong crowd any more. They don't know anything about their friends, and seem to be much more interested in living their own lives while the children are out of the house.

I am not saying the children should be smacked - far from it, but if the parents were to instill some sort of moral code into their children from an early age, things may start to improve.

Children these days see all sorts of things in the home which they should never see, from domestic violence and sexual abuse, to other sorts of abuse like excessive drinking and drug taking. It's no small wonder some of them grow up thinking it's the right way to live. If their parents are both on the dole and have no intention of going to work, the children will latch on quite quickly and they will think this is quite normal.

If parents took on a more active role in raising their children, rather than just opening the front door and kicking them out to do God knows what, they would learn that this is not the way to behave.

The police could also be more pro-active, but they are so busy looking for speeding tickets (at the behest of our greedy government, who need all the money they can get their grubby little hands on), there are probably not enough of them to police the country properly.

I do agree with everything you say - and these yobs should be punished, and punished severely. The problem is, the law is in favour of the perpetrator and not the victim. This softly-softly approach isn't working, and it's about time someone in authority grabbed the bull by the horns and started dishing out stiffer penalties.

Our grandson is 14 months old and he already knows the meaning of the word "No". If he has a tantrum, he is put in his playpen (with no toys) for 2 minutes. It does work and his parents are already seeing the benefits. He rarely plays up and he is a happy and contented little boy.
Improving Brown's domestic political prospects? 1:54pm on 07 Apr 2009 Susan

When I was young, my parents were strict to say the least. We knew exactly where we stood with them and if we crossed the line we would be punished. We pretty soon learnt that if you did what what was expected of you, life would be good.

This may or may not have been what social services today call "a balanced upbringing", but we were taught politeness and, moreover, to respect other people and their property. This has stood me in good stead throughout my life and my sons are both of the same ilk.

Children cannot be blamed for their actions if they have never been taught right from wrong. If we can teach children from other countries in their native language while in school here, at a tremendous cost to the taxpayer, we should be able to legally do something about those parents, who can just let their children wander the streets at all times without knowing where they are, or what they are doing. These parents seem to be in the majority these days and also seem to be out of the reach of the law.

It is not difficult to teach children basic manners. We managed it, along with thousands (probably millions) of other parents, who wanted their children to grow up to be decent people. There is very little decency now. Pregnant women and the elderly now have to stand on public transport, and our roads are full of rage. People are mugged in the street on a daily basis, and violent crime has shot through the roof. It's a great pity, but past governments liberal attitudes have done nothing to abate this, and I fear it has now gone way past the point of no return.
Improving Brown's domestic political prospects? 11:33am on 07 Apr 2009 Anyone can be British. I am English. I used to be proud to say that but not any more.

This country is going to the dogs. We see reports of two young lads who went for a day's fishing in Doncaster. Nothing unusual in that - I used to do it myself with friends when I was younger.

The point is, that these two lads are still in hospital, one of them is critical with stab wounds which, according to the news, were influicted upon him by two other lads of 10 and 12.

If this is true, why are the parents of these boys not being questioned by the police, and social services? They surely must assume responsibility for the malicious actions of their children.

This is what England has become. A country where kids under 16 can get hold of knives and inflict these sorts of injuries on two lads who were just out for a day's fishing.
Improving Brown's domestic political prospects? 1:32pm on 06 Apr 2009 #76 Fubar.

Totally agree.

I do think that some of the blame has to lie with the dire standard of education in this country, and employers - councils seem to be one of the worst - who would rather fill the job with anyone other than the right person. I spoke to people from all walks of life when I was working, and I have been very surprised at the standard of written english in some of the letters I've received.

A girl of 17/18 can walk into a secretarial position these days, and the standard of english required only needs to be to GCSE level. When I started work, girls were employed in the typing pool and graduated from there into more senior positions over time. Secretaries were rarely under 30 back then, but they were very organised and most of them had shorthand skills too. This has been replaced by speedwriting. My neice went to a grammar school and her standard of written english is absolutely appalling. She doesn't know how to construct a sentence, let alone anything more taxing. She pronounces secretary as secetary (sic).

I've received letters with poor spelling, grammar and punctuation, and I've even spoken to someone in the legal profession who received a CV from a prospective Legal Trainee, written in text speak! Many youngsters can't speak to people properly over the telephone - some of them can't even cobble a coherent sentence together. It just beggars belief.

We should bring back spelling and grammar in state schools. It was a very sad day when this was shelved in favour of phonetics, which the Government at the time said was the flagship of the education system. This proved to be a huge mistake. Children were taught that it didn't matter whether their written words were spelt wrongly, as long as their point was put across. Hence, the "couldn't care less" attitude. Of course, the responsibility of getting the right calibre of staff should lie with their managers - but most of them have had the same standard of education, so things will never improve.
Improving Brown's domestic political prospects? 12:19pm on 06 Apr 2009 Fubar

I agree with you that Fred Goodwin's pension is scandalous, but I cannot believe that Lord Myners and, subsequently the Government, didn't know beforehand that Sir Fred's pension was contractual, and it would therefore be very difficult to legally stop him having it.

I read in one of the broadsheets that Goodwin was asked to leave his post 15 months before his retirement. With such a short space of time until retirement, most people in that situation would probably ask if this would have an adverse effect on their pensions. Why should Goodwin be any different?

When vandals smashed windows at Goodwin's home, and damaged his cars, not one of our Cabinet came out and said it was wrong. I wonder why. If this had happened to one of them, they would be instigating inquiries ten to the dozen.

I firmly believe this this was a handy smokescreen to divert the public's attention away from the massive amount of money being thrown at the financial sector by Labour. They needed a scapegoat and Goodwin just happened to be there. As I've said before, Goodwin's £16m pales away into insignificance against the bail out fund.

BTW. What happened to the reports about the by-election in Leeds on 2nd April? I don't remember seeing anything about this. Maybe it was because Labour finished up in third place, behind the Conservatives and the BNP!

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